Monday, August 02, 2010

Three trains are traveling on one north-south track. The first train is colored mustard yellow and beige and is slowly progressing northward at 30 mph, and though no one believes it has the fuel to sustain its momentum, it has not abated in its advancement. Train number two is colored a very ugly orange and black and is also slowly progressing northward, at a rate of 10 mph, despite being weighed down by a 300-lb panda among other dead weights.

Train number three is colored a beautiful blue shade, but is hurtling southward at a rate of 186,282 miles per second, billowing smoke from its locked windows and doors while its passengers scream bloody murder in their futile attempts to escape.

How long will it take before train number three explodes in an enormous ball of fire, taking out a rancorous divorcing couple in the engine room (which would be okay) as well as millions of the train's supporters (which would not be as cool)?

As best I can figure, train C will crash into the side of the mountain in two months, give or take. However, since it is traveling south at the speed of light, special relativity dictates that this interval will be perceived as approaching eternity to all of the hapless passengers on board.

True, but if the train was big enough to accommodate, say, Ten million passengers, the 100,000kg is off by at least a factor of 1,000. I'm having to assume that this train is traveling at 99.999% of the speed of light (significant digits, yo), factoring in special relativity, it would impact a stationary object with the force of 100 million million million tons of TNT. Which is a lot.

If it were *actually* traveling at the speed of light, that would require an infinite amount of energy and the universe would end, but that's just ridiculous.